Learn about legal framework of trademark registration, protection and enforcement in Russia. You can also compare Russian approach with international standards enshrined in relevant treaties and discover problematic arears of trademark protection in the Russia.
This course is on legal regulation of trademark protection in Russia. It explains the process of acquiring trademark in Russia, alternatives to trademark protection (such as firm names, trade names, names of origins), requirements for trademark validity, conditions under which trademarks are protected in Russia, scope of excusive trademark rights protection, peculiarities of assignment and licensing practice in Russia. The course also focuses on issues of trademark infringement, criteria applied by the Russian courts and relevant practice of the Russian Intellectual Property Court. It describes different remedies available to the trademark holders, including calculation of statutory damages under the Russian law for trademark infringement.
Russian trademark legislation and case law do not have long historical roots. This is the reason why this area of the Russian law may be characterized as very dynamic. Examples will be given to illustrate successful legal solutions (for example, trademark protection in domain names, exhaustion of trademark rights) and ongoing search for proper and balanced regulation (for example, regulation of parallel imports, antitrust regulation in trademark law, application of fair use doctrine o trademarks).

From the lesson

Termination of Trademark Rights

Trademark rights are not timeless or absolute; they may be terminated, revoked or invalidated if necessary legal grounds are present. What are these grounds? This lecture answers this question and provides for relevant illustrations when trademark rights may be removed from the Register of trademarks on voluntary or involuntary basis. Among them are expiration of trademark rights, waiver of rights, change of trademark owner’s legal status, opposition of third parties regarding breach of absolute or relative grounds for refusal to register trademarks, bad faith registration and unfair competition, non-use of trademarks and loss of distinctiveness.